Book Feature :: Hospitals and Health: Your Orthomolecular Guide to a Shorter, Safer Hospital Stay

Hospitals and Health: Your Orthomolecular Guide to a Shorter, Safer Hospital Stay by

Most people, over the course of their lives, are likely to spend time in a hospital. What many may not realize is that the risks of a hospital stay can outweigh the benefits. Sometimes hospitalization is essential-for trauma, life-threatening emergencies, or complex surgical procedures. But despite the benefits of modern medicine, hospitals harm thousands of patients each year, and many more suffer serious or fatal drug side effects. Learn how to protect yourself!

Hospitals and Health looks at how hospital care got on the wrong track, from historical and economic perspectives. It then offers suggestions for minimizing the risks of a hospital stay and ways to improve your own experience. Good nutrition is the key-to boost your immune system, speed recovery from illness, and reduce your need for pharmaceuticals. And you’ll learn how to become your own health-care advocate. The book provides tips for choosing the best hospitals, nursing care, doctors, and surgeons. You’ll be armed with the knowledge you need to demand the best treatment possible.

By asserting control of health decisions, you can steer clear of unnecessary risks and, if hospital treatment is unavoidable, increase the chances of success. Take charge of your health care with Hospitals and Health.

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Dental X-Ray Linked to Brain Cancer

A study in the journal Cancer reveals that people who have had dental X-rays are more likely to develop a type of brain tumor called meningioma than those who have not.

According to CNN Health:

“The meningioma patients had more than a two-fold increased likelihood of having ever experienced a dental X-ray test called a bitewing exam. Depending on the age at which the exams were done, those who’d had these exams on a yearly basis, or more often, were 1.4 to 1.9 times more likely to have had a meningioma.

… Panorex exams, which involve images of all of the teeth on one film, were also linked to meningioma risks. If study participants had panorex exams when they were younger than 10 years old, their risk of meningioma went up 4.9 times. One of these around-the-head X-rays carries about twice as much radiation as four bitewing X-rays.

… There is a latency period – a lag time – of about 20 to 25 years with meningiomas induced by radiation… Only about 1% to 5% of meningiomas are cancerous, but in people with known increased radiation exposure, that risk can go up…”

It is worth noting that these findings relied upon individuals’ memories of how many bitewing, full-mouth and panorex dental X-rays they’d had since childhood, hence this gives rise to plenty of room for error reporting. Participants for this study were between the ages of 20 and 79. However the dangerous effects of radiation exposure from x-ray, imaging and other diagnostic equipments are also supported by substantial evidence as a causative factor of future cancers.

Source: CNN Health, 10 April 2012

Get Fit in Just 3 Minutes A Week

Many studies, including a recent research, have shown that a few relatively short bursts of intense exercise, amounting to only a few minutes a week, can deliver healthful benefits of hours of conventional exercise.

By spending three minutes doing High Intensity Training (HIT) a week
for four weeks, you can see significant changes in a number of important health indices, including improving insulin sensitivity. Insulin is a hormone that regulates sugar levels in the blood and it controls fat metabolism as well. According to Jamie Timmons, professor of ageing biology at Birmingham University, research from a number of centres has shown that three minutes of HIT a week improves insulin sensitivity by an average of 24 percent.

However the HIT benefits you can reap may depend on your genes.

Michael Mosley explains in BBC News:

“The fact is that people respond to exercise in very different ways. In one international study 1,000 people were asked to exercise four hours a week for 20 weeks. Their aerobic fitness was measured before and after starting this regime and the results were striking.

There is no suggestion that the non-responders weren’t exercising properly, it was simply that the exercise they were doing was not making them any aerobically fitter.”

Mosely adds that according to professor Timmons and his collaborators who investigated the reasons for these variations, they discovered that much of the difference could be traced to a small number of genes. Based on this finding, the team has developed a genetic test to predict who will be a responder and who will not.

Mosely tested HIT for himself. He simply got on an exercise bike, warm up by doing gentle cycling for a couple of minutes, then gave it his all for 20 seconds, took a couple of minutes to catch his breath, then cycled hard for a final 20 seconds. And that was it. After four weeks, the total amount time spent was just merely 12 minutes of intense exercise and 36 minutes of relaxed pedaling. His insulin sensitivity improved 24 percent while his aerobic fitness remained unchanged. He writes:

“It turns out that the genetic test they had done on me had suggested I was a non-responder and however much exercise I had done, and of whatever form, my aerobic fitness would not have improved. My dreams of winning Olympic gold ended there and then.”

So how does HIT work?

Part of the explanation is that HIT enables you to use not just the leg muscles, but also the upper body including arms and shoulders, so that 80% of the body’s muscle cells are activated, compared to 20-40% for walking or moderate intensity jogging or cycling.

Source: BBC News, 28 February 2012

FDA Says Walnuts Are Drugs

When Diamond Foods made truthful health claims about walnuts, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent the company a letter stating that “Your walnut products are drugs” — and “new drugs” at that — and, therefore, “they may not legally be marketed … in the United States without an approved new drug application.” The letter included a threat to seize the company if it failed to comply.

On the company’s website and packaging, information was made know about the health benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids found in walnuts, including a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer. These claims are well supported by peer-reviewed scientific studies.

Writing for The New American, Michael Tennant reports:

The FDA’s letter continues: “We have determined that your walnut products are promoted for conditions that cause them to be drugs because these products are intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease.”

Source: The New American, 21 July 2011

Book Feature :: A Physician’s Guide to Natural Health Products That Work

A Physician’s Guide to Natural Health Products That Work by James A. Howenstine

Do natural health solutions really exist?

Yes. Nutritious foods, vitamins, minerals, aminoacids, algae and extracts from herbs, plants, flowers, roots, seeds, bushes, trees, fish, mussels and animals have all been proven to have healing properties. If natural health solutions exist for many modern diseases, why don’t the pharmaceutical companies produce them?

Pharmaceutical companies exist to make money. (As all companies do.) One company makes 90% of its profits from only 6 patented and skillfully marketed drugs. They cannot patent natural products, so there is no profit motive to provide these products.

Why don’t more doctors know about natural health solutions?

The medical profession and pharmaceutical companies work together very closely.
We physicians continue our learning by reading medical journals and attending meetings. These are almost always oriented towards pharmaceutical companies and their drugs. The end result is the average physician has almost no awareness of the curative potential of natural treatments. Why has there been, in some cases, a negative image regarding natural health solutions?

There’s no question there has been some exaggeration and hype by untrained people talking about these issues. However, that doesn’t take away from the effectiveness of natural health solutions, when carefully chosen by skilled professionals. There seem to be so many natural health products out there, with all sorts of claims about them. It all seems pretty confusing to me. I have carefully chosen and screened the premier natural health products we recommend and explain how to take them.

They work and I tell you why they work. – Dr. James A. Howenstine, M.D.

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